The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentary (Standard reference book on the Third Reich)

For readers interested in the Third Reich, the Holocaust, Nazism, and genocides. Taken from Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations, 1932–1945, a four-volume set, this 880 page abridgement is arranged by topic: I. Editor’s preface; II. Domarus’ preface and introduction; III. history of Hitler’s government; IV. Hitler’s belief’s; Hitler’s methods of government; V. Hitler’s party; VI. German economy under Hitler; VII. Hitler and the Holocaust; VIII. Hitler and the churches; IX. How Hitler became army supreme comander; X. life in Hitler’s Germany; XI. Hitler and the Press; XII. expanding the Reich; XIII. The United States and Hitler; XIV. Hitler and the war; XV. the end of the War; XVI. epilogue. A topical index is included.

At the core of Hitler's beliefs was the " Jewish question," code words for Hitler's conviction that there existed an extraordinary organization of Jewish people that was very pervasive and intent on world domination and whose victory would mark the end of human survival. March 26, 1933 The boycott of Jewish businesses in 1933 was an effort to influence the Western European and American press, which Hitler believed was Jewish controlled. Abroad, the consequences of the new Enabling Act had been perceived more clearly than in the ranks of the non- National Socialist parties in Germany. The commentaries of the foreign press were less than friendly and aroused Hitler's anger. According to his preconception, so-called world Jewry (Weltjudentum) was to blame. As is generally known, Hitler believed in the existence of a secret Jewish world government that influenced all of the governments around the globe to act in its interests; above all, this entity was determined not to allow the German Volk to come to the fore. On the other hand, he believed the solidarity of Jewry throughout the world was so strong that it would be willing to make concessions in order to alleviate any hardships the Jews in Germany might be made to bear. Therefore Hitler was convinced that he need only harass and threaten the German Jews, and foreign governments would be persuaded to yield in their attitude towards Germany and Hitler: world Jewry would instruct these governments to act accordingly. Without delay he went to work on setting a warning example. As Reich chancellor, he had until now been extremely reserved on this point, rarely exhibiting his anti-Semitic attitude. Since January 30, even the party and the National Socialist press had, on Hitler's orders, refrained from treating the Jewish problem in their customary fashion. This policy was to undergo a radical change. From March 26 to March 28, Hitler conferred with his Unterführers in Berchtesgaden and Munich in order to outline an operation against German Jews to commence on April 1, with the expressly announced aim of thus putting pressure on world Jewry and foreign governments. On March 28, Hitler issued the following appeal to all party organizations of the Nazi Party to boycott the Jews:

National Socialists! Party Comrades!

After fourteen years of inner conflict, the German Volk--politically

overcoming its ranks, classes, professions, and religious

divisions--has effected an uprising ( Erhebung) that put

a lightning end to the Marxist- Jewish nightmare. In the weeks

following January 30, a unique national revolution took place

in Germany. In spite of long years of exceedingly severe suppression

and persecution, the masses of millions who support

the government of the national revolution have, in a very calm

and disciplined matter, given the new Reich leadership legal

sanction for the implementation of its reform of the German

nation from top to bottom. On March 5 the overwhelming

majority of Germans eligible to vote declared its confidence

in the new regime.

The completion of the national revolution has thus become

the demand of the Volk. The Jewish- Marxist bosses (Bonzen)

deserted their position of power with deplorable cowardice.

Despite all the fuss, not a single one dared to raise any serious

resistance. For the most part, they have left the masses they

had seduced in the lurch and fled abroad, taking with them

their stuffed strongboxes. The authors and beneficiaries of our

misfortune owe the fact that they were spared--almost without

exception--solely to the incomparable discipline and order

with which this act of overthrow was conducted. Hardly

a hair of their heads was harmed.

Compare this act of self-discipline on the part of the national

uprising in Germany with, for instance, the Bolshevist

revolution in Russia, which claimed the lives of over three

million people, and you will begin to appreciate what a debt of gratitude the criminals guilty of the disintegration in Germany

would owe the powers of the national uprising. Compare

the terrible battles and destruction of the revolution

of these very November-Men themselves: their shooting of

hostages in the years 1918-19; the slaughtering of defenseless

opponents--and you will once again perceive how enormous

the difference is between them and the national uprising.

The men presently in power solemnly proclaimed to the

world that they wanted to live in international peace. In this,

the German Volk constitutes a loyal following (Gefolgschaft ).

Germany wants neither worldwide confusion nor international

intrigues. National revolutionary Germany is firmly

resolved to put an end to internal mismanagement! Now that

the domestic enemies of the nation have been eliminated by

the Volk itself, what we have long been waiting for will now

come to pass. The Communist and Marxist criminals and

their Jewish-intellectual instigators, who, having made off

with their capital stocks across the border in the nick of time,

are now unfolding an unscrupulous, treasonous campaign of

agitation against the German Volk as a whole from there. Because

it became impossible for them to continue lying in Germany,

they have begun, in the capitals of our former enemies,

to continue the same agitation against the young national

uprising that they had already pursued at the outbreak of the

war against the Germany in 1914.

Lies and slander of positively hair-raising perversity are

being launched about Germany. Horror stories of dismembered

Jewish corpses, gouged-out eyes, and hacked-off hands

are circulated for the purpose of defaming the German Volk

in the world for a second time, just as they had succeeded in

doing once before in 1914. The animosity of millions of innocent

human beings, peoples with whom the German Volk

wishes only to live in peace, is being stirred up by these unscrupulous

criminals. They want German goods and German

labor to fall victim to the international boycott. It seems they

think the misery in Germany is not bad enough as it is; they

have to make it worse!